Emerging Brine Management Approaches for Sustainable Desalination in the GCC Countries

Abstract

The major technologies employed in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) based commercial desalination facilities are classified into two categories: the membrane-based (mostly reverse osmosis (RO)) and thermal-based (primarily multi-stage flash distillation (MSF)). Currently, the GCC nations are in a process of changing the current desalination facility completely or partly by RO technology. In desalination facilities, 40 % of the feed water is fresh water and the balance 60 % is the discharged brine. For the Arabian Gulf, the brine disposal as well as wastewater disposal are important. This work examines trend in desalination capacity and electricity consumption in GCC nations, the Unified Water Strategy in GCC as well as examine the emerging technologies that show promise from an environmental standpoint. Several new brine management technologies, including pressure retarded osmosis system, greenhouse desalination, different hybrid technologies like reverse electrodialyzed-based and electrodialysed-based hybrid systems have been examined in this study. According to the results of our study, desalination plants' innovative strategies are suitable and advantageous for reducing energy consumption as well as for environmental sustainability. On a commercial level, we recommend that more research is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness, applicability, and sustainability of these solutions. Additionally, we encourage greater research to be done on approaches that have the least negative environmental effects and the most readily available renewable energy sources in the GCC countries, such as wind and solar energy.